The painting is of a turquoise blue bird in profile(possibly a depiction of a verditer flycatcher, eumyias thalassina) set against the plain off-white ground of the paper. It has a black streak through its eye, a red beak, yellow legs and greyish wing feathers and is perched on a bare branch of a small shrub which has a leafy branch that curves over the body of the bird. The shrub grows out of an undulating representation of grassy ground at the base of the painting. Two little black birds with flashes of white (probably mynah birds) are painted on a smaller scale: one is perched on an upper twig of the shrub as the other flies toward it with food in its mouth. A grey butterfly of comparable size flies on the right hand side. A sunset sky is indicated at the top of the painting with streaks of red and white paint and a small amount of gold.
The painting is framed with gold lines outlined in black either side of strips of pale orange paper which are decorated with a floral scroll delineated in black and coloured in with gold. Further dabs of gold are flecked on the ground, which also has a white ruled line on its inner edge. A blue line is ruled on the outer edge of this framing on the main white border which is speckled with gold.